Premji transferred close to 300 million equity shares of Wipro, valued at Rs 12,300 crore, held by entities controlled by him to an irrevocable trust.

BANGALORE: This would be the biggest ever charity gesture shown in India. AzimPremji has transferred Rs 12,300 crore worth of personal shares to his trust that funds his philanthropic activities. This comes on top of a transfer he did in 2010, then valued at Rs 8,846 crore.

The Azim Premji Foundation, the vehicle through which the philanthropic activities are conducted, said on Friday that Premji had transferred 295.5 million equity shares, representing 12% of the total shares of Wipro Ltd and held by entities controlled by him, to an irrevocable trust. With this transfer, the trust's shareholding in Wipro will go up to 19.93%. "This trust will utilize the endowment to fund various social, not-for-profit initiatives of the Foundation, which are expected to scale significantly over the next few years," it said.

The "Giving Pledge" campaign, led by billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, had recently named Premji among billionaires around the world who had committed a majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Premji and his family hold about 75% of the shares in the $7-billion Wipro. Recently, some major commitments have also come from other Indian industry bigwigs, including Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL, who gave Rs 580 crore towards education, and GM Rao, chairman of the GMR Group, who gave Rs 152.89 crore for educating the underprivileged.

The Azim Premji Foundation has, over the past two years, done a slew of activities in education: established the Azim Premji University in Bangalore, state-level institutes in three states, district-level institutes in seven districts and six demonstration schools associated with the district institutes. Seven more district-level institutes are in various stages of formation.

The Foundation said it would open 60 district-level institutes and 8 state-level institutes across the country by 2016. It will also open 60 to 100 schools of its own. Premji University is expected to have 3,500 students in the next four years from 350 students now. "The district institutes will become outreach facilities for the university," the Foundation said.

Dileep Ranjekar, CEO of the Premji Foundation, told TOI: "We are looking at a 10-fold growth of our activities in the next three to four years. We set the momentum when the foundation announced a donation of Rs 8,846 crore in December 2010. Now we have another Rs 12,300 crore. Income from this corpus will generate funds to run our activities. To run our university alone, we need Rs 150 crore a year. We have a faculty pool of 60. Also, school education for each student costs Rs 22,000 a year. It's a long journey and investment will have to be continuous."

In a recent letter pledging more money to the Foundation, Premji had written: "The developments of the past two years have given me confidence in our scaled-up and institutional strategy. Even as we execute this strategy, I am aware that ensuring stable funding source is critical for its success. I am committed to transferring more of my wealth to scale up the endowment of the foundation."

He said he strongly believed "that those of us who are privileged to have wealth should contribute significantly to try and create a better world for the millions who are far less privileged."

Ranjekar said there is no education talent in India. "There is great need to create a well-rounded education talent pool here. We need to develop professionals who are familiar with various aspects of education: like technology in education, curriculum building, class room teaching, learning process, assessment, exam/evaluation systems, leadership in education, school management, pre-school education, special education."